Bible Reading :
Luke Chapter 7 Verses 37 - 50

Sinless

Last time I spoke about sin and the great barrier it has caused between us as sinners and our creator God. I mentioned how that to remain in sin is to face a lost eternity cast away in hell. To be in hell is to be separate from God and from everything peaceful and good. This is what, in the end, sin does to sinners left to themselves.

Sin is a very solemn and serious subject if we understand correctly about what sin is and about what sin does. If we are not seeking to have our sin cleared away by God's mercy and grace then we have not understood what sin is. If we are not seeking to be set right with God as hard as we can then we just haven't understood about sin. Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. Bible curses are predictions about people. Sin is a serious and solemn subject because it brings a curse on everyone who sins. By nature we minimise sin and think of it as not important. We can only begin to understand the awfulness of sin if we try and see it as God sees it instead of how we see it.

Gods' view of sin is seen in two ways. It is seen in what people suffer in eternity in hell and in all that The Lord Jesus suffered when He bore the sin of His people. Hell is a fact: Gods Word, the Bible, teaches this. Tonight, though, I want to draw attention to The Lord Jesus rather than to hell in order to illustrate Gods view of sin because I want to emphasise that The Lord Jesus was and is SINLESS and what this means for all God's people.

In His life the Lord Jesus always delighted to do what God wanted. All His life from His birth to His death He lived perfectly in accordance with all Gods' commandments. Jesus explained Gods Law in Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. This is how The Lord Jesus lived all His life. The Lord Jesus was kind and good to everyone He came across in His life. He practiced what He preached. Yet He went to The Cross at Calvary and He died there as if He were a criminal. He was sinless but He died as if He were a sinner.

The physical and spiritual suffering that The Lord Jesus endured was immense. It was beyond what any of us could begin to understand. The Lord Jesus endured the wrath, the anger and the judgement of God in Heaven despite the fact that He deserved none of it for anything He had done Himself. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

Here we see a great contrast. We sin and we deserve eternal death, Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.The Lord Jesus did not sin and He did not deserve eternal death. Jesus was perfect and the fact that He is The infinite God and a man at the same time enabled Him to bear all His peoples' punishment in three hours at Calvary and to finish making that payment. Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The Lord Jesus died but He rose from the dead. Sinner's sin was paid for while He hung on the cross. Once the price was paid there was nothing to hold Him in the grave. As He was perfect there was nothing for Him to pay for on His own behalf. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the third day "quickened by the Spirit:" and appeared in His resurrection body to His disciples and followers before returning to heaven to take His place on His throne at Gods' right hand. Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; This was a verse we mentioned before about when The Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem. Even as Mary held the baby Jesus He was upholding all of creation. Hebrews 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; The Lord Jesus left heaven in order to save sinners. He came down from heaven, carried out His work of saving His people from their sin and then returned to heaven. John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. This is why He came. Once He had done what He did there was no need for any more offerings and sacrifices because what The Lord Jesus did was enough.

Our only hope of forgiveness for our sin is to trust God and what The Lord Jesus has done and not to rely on anything we think we can do for ourselves. The sinless Lord Jesus suffered in the place of sinners. He took the place of sinners under Gods righteous judgment. Gods' anger against sin fell on Him at Calvary instead of on His people in an eternity in hell.

When a person is brought to believe on The Lord Jesus and God enables them to trust Him to deliver them from their sin they receive His righteousness and He takes their punishment. It is as if the sinner dies when The Lord Jesus died and rose again as He rose. This is why Christians are baptised. Going down under the water is a picture of death. Coming back up out of the water is a picture of rising from the dead to new life.

This is all a picture of what happens when a person is saved from their sin. Their sin is paid for by the death of The Lord Jesus. It is paid in full. It is as if they died and paid the penalty but it isn't the sinner who dies but the Saviour. His death is counted as theirs just as their sin is counted as His. His perfection is counted to the sinner; the sin is laid on the Saviour. Water speaks of washing and cleansing. Being baptized doesn't wash away sin. Baptism is just a picture of something that has happened already. The moment a sinner is given faith by God to believe on The Lord Jesus then that sinners' sin is cleansed. People are baptized because their sin is gone not in order to wash their sin away. Romans 6:3-4 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

A Christian is someone who is saved only by what the sinless Lord Jesus has done. It is only by trusting Him that our great enemy sin can be dealt with. Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Once a person is saved then they are at peace with God. Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. There is nobody who can argue with God. God is pleased with what The Lord Jesus has done.

The very fact that God raised The Lord Jesus to life shows that God accepted what He had done. If there had been any failure on Jesus part He'd have deserved to be lost like every other sinner. The truth is that Jesus never sinned so God raised Him again. This is the importance of the fact that The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. If He had been a sinner then He'd have remained in the grave until the day of judgement like the rest of the human race. The Lord Jesus was sinless so, once He had paid the penalty for the sin of His people and finished the work, then death could not hold Him. After three days, the length of time the Jews believed the soul remained in the body after death, The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. His stay in the tomb left no doubt that He really did die but, as we read in Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Sometimes Hymns can be useful to help in understanding things. The hymn that follows has some verses that explain a little of what we have considered here. It summarises what I've been talking about.

1. Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A Great High Priest whose name is love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

2. My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

3. When satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

4. Because The Sinless Saviour died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God The Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

5. Behold Him there, The risen Lamb!
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of Glory and of Grace!

6. One with Himself, I cannot die;
My soul is purchased by His blood;
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Saviour and my God.

This is something that every Christian believer can say about their experience and their hope. This is what everyone who wants to go to heaven has to be able to say sincerely from their heart.

Is this something that you can say and know that it is true?